Family Search Reviews

(based on 18 reviews)

77 of 153 people found this review helpful

I've not used Family Search for long, but noticed very quickly that I was able to enter my pretty well-researched famiily tree easily, and made a few possibly accurate discoveries.

However... I am also able to follow my family tree in unbroken chains to the following:
Charlemagne
Boudicea/Boudica (she's in there twice at least)
Catherine Howard (of Henry Tudor fame)
Kings and Queens and other royalty and nobility of every stripe (over the whole of the UK, Europe, into Turkey, etc)
Pre-Roman Britain
(I think you get the picture)

Several things are possible:
- My family IS actually full of historic figures (doubtful.. Some, maybe. More likely, not.)
- Some individuals intentionally tied relatives to royalty to make it seem true (possible, to likely)
- The site is rife with erroneous relationship links (possible... Some almost comical or "jokey" errors, like wife of some ancient guy in the 600-900s having a modern name and 1900s birthdate)
- There is a load of nonsense due to the site's "open source" collaboration (quite possible)
- The sites it pulls from have many duplicates and errors in lineages (also quite possible)

So... while it is entertaining to see who I can find at the end of each line, I wouldn't be inclined to take it very... (Read the full review)

In summary, I would recommend Family Search to a friend.

90 of 179 people found this review helpful

This site is continuing to add features and it is not always easy to find what you are looking for. It is divided into two major areas and several other areas.

What most people, including the reviewer on this site, do not understand is that there are -no- individual trees, except those that are uploaded into a read-only area via GEDCOM files.

The major tree is one single collaborative open-edit tree that is intended to cover the entire human race. Living persons are private, available only to those who create them. Deceased persons are generally open-edit, except for those born before 1500 and certain celebrity personalities (mostly attached to the early Mormon Church leadership).

The tree was created from previous tree systems used by the Genealogical Society of Utah (now FamilySearch) and contains many duplicates which patrons can merge to help clean up the tree. It has a built-in source linker that can be used to link sources from the Historical Records Collection (which is the other major section) with their respective persons in the tree.

Two searches are available. One search covers the massive tree (currently there are over 1.1 Billion names in the tree) and it is access... (Read the full review)

In summary, I would recommend Family Search to a friend.

206 of 435 people found this review helpful

Familysearch.org is migrating old information to the new site. I was told it should be done or close to done by middle of 2013. I have been using it for a bit over a month. I have called for assistance and have had wonderful support on how to search a bit easier. If you click on search then scroll to the area your looking to find information.. for example scroll to the bottom of the records page and select United States, from there choose a state, example Pennsylvania, you will then see the Historical Record Collections

You then will be able to determine the records that they have posted.. which will make or break your search.. but they have mentioned a lot more to come by middle of 2013

I may still look at Archives.com for the price and the free 7 day trial

In summary, I would recommend Family Search to a friend.

263 of 508 people found this review helpful

Much better results than ancestry.com! And for free! I have been researching my father's family, who immigrated from Austria/Hungary in the early 1900's. I have found much more information on Family Search than I have on ancestry.com (the pay site). I am getting more hits here, the information is much more relevant, and the info seems to be more accurate than the ancestry website. The downside - I haven't found any original documents available on this website like you can (if you're lucky) on the ancestry site. BUT I am digging up info not available on other websites and am able to use that as a starting point in many cases. Anyone who is doing this probably knows that it is a time-consuming and often frustrating undertaking and there is no perfect website for this mission. It's a fabulous collaboration of bits of information from wherever it can be found. Hang in there...keep digging...it's a really neat thing to do and worth the time and frustration!

In summary, I would recommend Family Search to a friend.